Sales management training, onboarding, and supporting: How to coach new hires fast for the new normal

Everything is changing. Rapidly. And while this can be nerve-wracking, change can also be a great thing. Change can introduce a host of exciting new opportunities for those invested in the future of sales management. 

However, to ensure you’re in a position to grab these opportunities as they arise, it’s vital that you - and your team - have the necessary sales management training and skills to make the most of the opportunities that come with the new normal. Or, that you’re ready to bring in new hires as needed to fill any gaps within the existing team setup and boost your remote team performance. 

One aspect that is important to remember in the new normal is that, regardless of whether you’re bringing in new people, or developing the skills of the existing team, speed is everything. The rapidly shifting landscape means that it’s vital to train and coach quickly to avoid missing out on new opportunities. Agility will also ensure that you’re able to adapt speedily to changes in the external environment, such as customer behaviours and expectations, customer segment health, and associated factors. 

Sales training 

There’s a big difference between knowledge sharing and building behaviour competences. Both are crucial aspects to consider when looking to onboard and support new and existing employees through change. So how can managers train new hires quickly?

At times like these, quick knowledge sharing sessions are hugely effective. They work to directly boost the necessary skills that new hires need and ensure that, from a productivity perspective, they hit the ground running

Building behaviour competences is more complex. This is less about giving new hires the skills they need, and more about building the foundations required to continue this learning and expanding their knowledge base on the job. McKinsey notes that ‘the stronger learning capabilities that emerge could stand as a positive long-term outcome from this sobering period’, highlighting the importance of good, supportive coaching. 

The key to coaching new hires, fast

It’s easy to think of learning as being something associated with the learner. It’s not. In this scenario, the key to quickly developing a skilled, knowledgeable team is you. 

Your own sales management training could mean the difference between onboarding, coaching, and supporting new hires, and onboarding, coaching, and supporting new hires with speed and efficiency. The truth is that new hires learn faster when they’re led effectively; when they have a manager that takes a proactive approach to leadership, who uses KPIs to continually monitor performance, identify gaps, and address them, who is available for support, and who really knows how to get the most from their team. 

As you may have noticed, your team is more productive when you lead your employees well, and it’s no different when it comes to new hires. Training is great for imparting knowledge, but it’s up to you to ensure this knowledge can be developed by focusing on your own coaching skills and working to build a strong leadership style. 

Coaching new hires for the new normal isn’t about them. It’s about you. 

Here are three critical areas of sales management training that today’s leaders should be working to boost and improve to effectively onboard and support new hires:

Working to build, develop, and implement a culture that facilitates fast learning is an important aspect of onboarding rapidly. This culture can help new hires to better understand both the internal and external changes, and create an environment that supports digital engagement, self development, and innovation. 

Sales management training isn’t just about management; it’s also about leadership. Leadership is important here as it can better help teams to connect, creating opportunities for new hires to learn from others. A humanistic management approach that puts people first and allows for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing can accelerate learning. 

Sales management training can help managers to better understand the impact of technology on sales. Implementing new hardware and software for virtual meetings and all-in-one platforms for CRM can help to spread crucial knowledge across the company for rapid onboarding learning. 

Lessons from sales

One of the best ways to onboard, support, and coach with speed is to borrow lessons from the sales environment. As a sales manager, when you’re designing and adapting customer-facing processes, you’ll focus on the aspects that are working very well, and you’ll work to identify ways to extend these benefits quickly into other areas. It’s much the same for coaching new hires. Look at what’s working, identify what isn’t working, and locate ways to extend excellence across all areas of training and development.